Susan Scott's Blog, page 38

How Your Body Language Impacts Workplace Conversations

“What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Whether you’re giving (or receiving) feedback, confronting a colleague, having a collaborative meeting, or just engaging in casual conversation, your body language matters.

Body language alone can make or break a conversation. According to Psychologist World, human communication is 20% verbal and 80% non-verbal. Body language that doesn’t coincide with the message we intend to send can therefore lead to relationship ruptures, misunderstandings, and unwanted outcomes.

Body language is the primary language of emotion, and how others perceive our emotion influences how our communication lands for them. A study by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at New York University and Princeton revealed that body language is an even more accurate determiner of judging emotion than facial expressions. In short, your body language plays a significant role in how successful your conversation is on an emotional level.

Although what we say verbally is important, our nonverbal expression can greatly influence whether our message is communicated effectively.

The outcome of a conversation can vary greatly depending on the type of body language you’re using. Ask yourself: how do I want the other person to feel when I’m speaking to them? What outcome do I hope to achieve from this conversation, and is my body language of reflection of that? If your objective is to strengthen the relationship, then being aware of your body language can help achieve this objective.

Two key words to consider when it comes to your body language are intention and accuracy. Honesty plays a role—the point is not to smile when you feel like frowning or pretend to be relaxed when you’re upset. The point is to let others know how you really feel while keeping your intended outcome or objective in mind.

That said, here are a few body language cues via lifehacker that may be interpreted as “uninviting,” unproductive, or misleading:

• Arms folded across the chest

• Crinkled eyebrows that create a scowl

• Excessive fidgeting

• Slouching

• Not making eye contact

• Appearing “dominant” in posture

To create warmer body language and what will likely be a more connecting conversation, try instead:

• Opening your arms – having an “open” chest

• Relaxing your shoulders

• Making eye contact

• Nodding to show understanding

• Being present/avoiding distractions

• Slightly mirroring the other person’s gestures

• Being at eye level to the other person

During your next conversation, pay close attention to your body language. What are you noticing? How can you be more intentional with your body language to improve the quality of your conversations?

The post How Your Body Language Impacts Workplace Conversations appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Revised and Updated Fierce Conversations Launches Today

At the core of Fierce, and really at the core of relationship, are Fierce conversations. This idea originated years ago with our founder and CEO, Susan Scott, whose now famous statement launched an entire organization:

While no single conversation is guaranteed to change the trajectory of a career, a company, a relationship, or a life, any single conversation absolutely can.

In addition to launching Fierce, a company helping thousands of business leaders directly, Susan also published Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work & in Life, One Conversation at a Time which has sold a half a million copies to date. Today, we are excited to announce an extensively revised and updated version is now available.

The updated version offers guidance for navigating changes that are happening in the workplace, including the shifting expectations of employees. Some key additions to the book include:

• Insight into how and when to use technology – how to engage virtual employees and teams, when to use technology as a communication tool, and when it actually hinders relationships.

• The shift in performance management away from anonymous feedback to an increasing desire for face to face, direct feedback – along with how to ask for it, and how to both give and receive it.

• A redefining of “accountability” and a very different approach to creating a culture of “if it’s to be, it’s up to me.”

• An emphasis on the need for deeper human connectivity beyond what emails, Facebook status updates, Instagram posts, and tweets can provide.

The book – the revised and the original – aims to help readers cut through the clutter to overcome barriers to meaningful communication, expand and enrich conversations with friends and family, increase clarity and improve understanding, handle strong emotions on both sides of the table, and so much more.

For more information, visit www.fierceinc.com/fierceconversations or you can purchase your copy here.

If and when you get a chance to read the revised version, we’d love to hear what you think!

The post Revised and Updated Fierce Conversations Launches Today appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Fierce Tip of the Week: Ask for Feedback as a Leader

“Asking others for input increases their expectation that you will change in a positive way.” – Joseph Folkman, The Power of Feedback

The world is constantly changing around you. An important employee leaves your team. A key client shifted the whole program for their upcoming session. A new company launches to compete with your core product. Your computer crashes. All before noon. Big or small fluctuations happen every minute of the day.

Leaders must be able to track the trends with their teams and organizations. Feedback is important data in our daily lives, so we need to solicit input. So I ask: How much feedback are you receiving from your employees?

My guess would be not enough. And if that is true, you need to ask. The higher up you are in the organization, the more removed you may be from how you are really doing from others’ perspectives.

This week’s tip is to ask for feedback. You must invite input and recognize that it may not be easy for your employees. Recognize that your employees may test if you really want the honest truth, so it is important to remain curious and grateful for whatever you receive in order to build a foundation for continuous feedback.

You can also think of creative ways to share your experiences to encourage your team members to share feedback. Early in my career, one of my leaders consistently asked me for feedback. On one hand, I loved it. I felt like he had extra interest in my perspective. On the other hand, I felt uncomfortable. I felt intimidated to openly share the feedback I deemed “hard to give.” For example, there were times when he really shut people down, and it made people scared of him. I didn’t feel this way about him, but I witnessed it. That would be a hard piece of feedback to give, so I wrote a note to myself to bring it up.

In our next meeting, he shared, “Sometimes I get really impatient with people and snap at them. I’ve been working on this. Have you seen this show up?” Ding ding ding. This was my opportunity, and I appreciated it so much to be able to share. After he shared what he was working on, I was much more comfortable sharing what I observed, because I knew he truly wanted to change and improve.

I am not saying you should ALWAYS use this tactic, however, I do encourage you to share what you are working on with your team members. Being real is so important. It opens doors.

Now is the time for you to open doors. Schedule time on your calendar to ask for input from the people most critical to your success.

The post Fierce Tip of the Week: Ask for Feedback as a Leader appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Friday Resource: American Workplace Changing at a Dizzying Pace

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published by Gallup and shares data from workplace studies on the rapid pace of change in the workplace.

Change has always been a constant and prevalent force within the business world. It is woven into the very nature of business. Yet, something feels different about the torrid pace in which change is occurring now.

Technology and shifts in organizational structure have required businesses to reconsider how they manage their people and their work. With flexible work hours, the traditional 9-5 is no longer the norm as virtual teams interact via email or video conferencing.

Ed O’Boyle and Annamarie Mann, Gallup, attribute much of this change to Millennials assuming the majority of today’s workforce.

“They want their work to have meaning and purpose. They want to use their talents and strengths to do what they do best every day. They want their jobs to fit their life. And they are less interested in settling.”

Organizations are becoming more agile and flexible to accommodate the needs of the modern workforce, or they risk losing their best employees and the ability to attract top talent. According to the State of the American Workplace report by Gallup, 51% of employees are searching for new jobs or watching for openings, thus the companies that do not adapt will be left behind.

“The one thing leaders cannot do is nothing.”

Read the entire article here.

The post Friday Resource: American Workplace Changing at a Dizzying Pace appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

6 Tips for Dealing with Unwanted Change in the Workplace

“I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving—we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it—but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.” —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr

Change in the workplace can create a ripple effect of distress throughout an entire organization. Unwanted transitions may include big budget cuts, sudden layoffs, company relocations, or the introduction of different programs or processes that come with undesirable drawbacks. These types of changes are necessary at times, but depending on the circumstances, they can weigh heavily on employee morale and even affect an organization’s reputation.

As unsettling as it can be at first, change is often positive. But on occasion, an organization may begin heading in a direction that compromises its values or mission. While the hope is that leadership will make decisions that are in the best interest of the organization and its employees, people are imperfect and outcomes can be difficult to foresee. We’re all vulnerable to what author Daniel Goleman calls the “amygalda hijack”—when fear takes over, it can affect our ability to make optimal decisions. It’s challenging in the moment to know whether our choices are the best ones, and sometimes we don’t understand the impact of our decisions until we’re able to see them in retrospect. By then, it’s often too late to turn back.

External factors such as social progress or shifts in industry impact our organizations in ways we can’t control. But in some areas, we do have control, leaving us with the responsibility of promoting “positive” changes that align with organizational values.

If you feel an impending change is not a positive one for the organization or its employees, here are 6 tips that can help you navigate the conflict of interest.

1. Speak up! Have the conversation.

Bring your concerns to your fellow leaders, even if you fear your perspective may differ strongly from the rest of the group. This is a time for courage and a time to be fierce. You may be seeing something that others aren’t. A conversation may not change the trajectory of whatever lies ahead, but any conversation can.

2. Provide an alternative.

Complaining is easy, and it’s not the best way to get others to listen. If you believe you have a valid reason to complain, present an alternative idea instead of the complaint. If something isn’t working related to a recent or expected change, providing an alternative may be the best way to steer the current course of things in a new and better direction.

3. Benchmark.

A benchmark can provide a solid backing to your perspective by illustrating what works and what doesn’t. For example, if a new program is introduced that you believe is less effective than a previous one, compare results from the two different programs, prepare your data, and plan a follow-up conversation. If the numbers show greater results in favor of what you’re supporting, it could potentially shift an outcome in a positive direction.

4. Encourage others to have the conversation.

The effects of change can be felt across an entire organization, and what everyone is really thinking and feeling sometimes surfaces during happy hours or water cooler conversations. If colleagues are expressing their concerns to each other but not directly to leadership, the direction the company is headed will stay the same, and leaders won’t be able to fully support their teams if they’re not informed of how people feel. Encourage your team members to share their concerns directly with you or with leadership in general, and likewise, encourage your fellow leaders to involve everyone in a decision that will, in fact, impact everyone.

5. Check your context.

Our personal experiences throughout our lives shape our context and create a subjective lens through which we see the world. Context can become an issue when the way we’re choosing to see things isn’t producing the results we want. While it’s important to relay your concerns and stand up for your organization and your colleagues, consider the underlying intentions of the proposed change, and keep in mind that sometimes initially uncomfortable changes can bring desirable outcomes later. Change begets change, so project forward—what positives could occur in the future as a result of this supposedly “unwanted” change?

6. Trust yourself.

If you’ve checked your context and explored any assumptions you might be making, it’s important to trust yourself at the end of the day. To trust yourself means to trust how you truly feel once you’ve eliminated bias. If a decision is made that lacks integrity or goes against what you value most, you’ll have to decide whether you want to continue being a part of the organization. Have a conversation with yourself about whether you should stay or go. Only you know the answer.

Can you recall a time when you changed the direction your organization was headed for the better, or witnessed someone who did? Share with us.

The post 6 Tips for Dealing with Unwanted Change in the Workplace appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Friday Resource: 7 Habits of People Who Have Achieved Work-Life Balance

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published by Fast Company and shares seven habits of people who have achieved work-life balance.

Achieving work-life balance in a world in which we are constantly connected through technology can seem more like a fairytale than a reality. According to the American Sociological Review, 70% of American workers struggle with finding enough time to devote to their lives outside of work. Although most Americans have not found the correct balance, there are some tools that can help.

Harvey Deutschendorf, Fast Company Contributor, shares tools utilized by the 30% that have achieved this elusive balance. A few include:

1. Making deliberate choices about what they want in life. Instead of rolling with the punches and letting life unfurl, people who have achieved work-life balance make deliberate choices about what they want from life and how they want to spend their time. Once these parameters are set they commit to the path they have chosen for them and the people in their lives.

2. Setting aside time for family, friends and important interests. People who have achieved work-life balance are intentional about how they spend their time and actively book time off to spend outside of work with family and friends. Sitting back and waiting to see what time is left over after work obligations will not produce a healthy balance.

3. Setting their own parameters around success. For many people, being successful does not need to be tied to a monetary value and can come in the form of being a successful parent, partner or friend. People who have achieved work-life balance have strong self-awareness of their values and what is important to them.

Read the other four tools to help achieve work-life balance and the entire article here.

 

The post Friday Resource: 7 Habits of People Who Have Achieved Work-Life Balance appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

How to Find “Balance” in an Imbalanced Environment

In today’s uncertain environment, it is certain that balance is hard to achieve. Balance is often thought of as being equal in distribution in terms of time spent in areas such as our commitments, workload, and personal well-being. Having a routine and a plan for the week is a good start, until unpredictable external forces find their way in and cause undue stress.

As part of the Fierce interview process, we ask, “how would we know if you are stressed?” The intention of this question is to get an idea of the candidate’s self-awareness and ability to manage a stressful situation with a healthy action to move them through it.

An extension to that question is, “what elements do you find stress you out”? The question comes from the lens of knowing the natural pressures that emerge in a fast-paced environment where balance and consistency in day-to-day responsibilities are almost never constant. Although the question achieves a basic understanding of self-awareness of one’s triggers, the reality is, the impact of stress and the idea of balance are difficult to assess as it doesn’t account for all the different variables in the workplace that might challenge even the most well-prepared individual.

Every Sunday afternoon I sit down with my planner and calendars—yes, plural on calendars—to prepare for the week ahead. I consider our family commitments on one, my work commitments  on the other, and then have a third that overlays them all together. I focus on building in time for meeting preparation and daily deliverables. Come Monday morning, I feel confident walking into the week ahead. But then, reality hits. As Susan Scott so poignantly coined it, “no plan survives its collision with reality.” School calls and the bus is running late, again. The contract that was guaranteed to come in today just fell through because the key decision maker in their company was just let go. And someone considered a high-potential employee just resigned to follow their passion in a completely unrelated field. All before 9am. Now my stress level has increased a bit, and the balance I thought I had orchestrated for myself in the week ahead has turned into something a lot less proportionate than I had planned.

As we grow in our lives, so do the complications of our careers and families, and the quest for balance tends to add another level of complexity, especially if we believe those around us have it and we don’t. While navigating the unpredictable external forces that come from the news, our clients, our employees, and perhaps even ourselves, it is important to stop and do our own self-assessment of what balance means to us and how we might be contributing to unnecessary stress. Look to these tips to re-center and find accountable ground to stand on:

1. Reframe balance and remove the notion that you will never achieve it.

The way we traditionally think of balance doesn’t always work in the reality of our lives. Redefine it and realize that not every piece of your pie will be equally proportionate. At different times, you will find focus needs to be greater in certain areas. If you realize that you don’t like the way your pie is sliced, the key is to take steps to put yourself into an accountable, solution-oriented mode.

2. Consider what behaviors or actions you’re demonstrating that have gotten you here. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Am I saying yes to more than I can realistically handle?

• Am I doing work others should be doing because I think I do it best or because I haven’t provided clear guidelines ?

• Am I causing myself more work because I’m not being inclusive or aware of the input needed from others to move a project forward or make a decision?

• Am I placing other people’s expectations of my time over my own?

3. Take action.

As you assess which of the above behaviors you identify with the most, determine your next best actionable step by asking yourself the following question:

Given what’s in front of me now and what I’ve identified above, what’s the most important move I can make today to break this pattern and be accountable to my own definition of balance?  

Once you’ve asked yourself this question, the action you end up taking will probably require a conversation with a colleague or other important person in your life.

Recently I noticed an uptick in approval requests coming to me about various items that all centered around one leader’s team. I took myself through the questions above and realized that I was doing work others should be doing because I hadn’t given clear enough parameters to enable him to make these calls. With his input, we sat down and looked at the type of requests that were coming my way and what he needed from me in order to feel confident he could own the decision in these particular areas. It was an evolution of a framework we use at Fierce called a decision tree, a model for delegating items in order to develop others. When done properly, it strengthens the execution and leadership muscle of those on a team—whether they are a leader or individual contributor.

It’s important to realize this isn’t a one-and-done type of exercise. Ongoing evaluation is needed to hold an accountable position to the ever-changing needs of life. By following these steps to redefine your notion of balance as the world around you shifts, remember to ask yourself what behaviors you are exhibiting that may need to change so that you can identify the next best step towards action. And ultimately, find your best version of balance that fits the reality of your life.

The post How to Find “Balance” in an Imbalanced Environment appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Fierce Tip of the Week: Perhaps We Don’t Need Work/Life Balance

In business there is a lot of talk around work/life balance. To me, this topic is always too broad. I think for many, life is more fluid than that. In a world of constant connection, many of us work when we could be playing and play when we could be working.

This week’s tip is about moving the conversation beyond looking at work/life balance as vacation and time at work. Rather than keeping those pieces apart, what would happen if we combined them more?

Often people believe that you have to be really lucky to love what you do enough to not need a vacation from it. Perhaps in our current state of business, where 70% of Americans are disengaged at work, this is true. However, if your organization and your employees came to work each day as excited as they are to leave on Friday – what results could be achieved?

This week ask yourself: What does work/life balance really look like for you?

The post Fierce Tip of the Week: Perhaps We Don’t Need Work/Life Balance appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Friday Resource: The Ten Types of Corporate Innovation Programs

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published by The Huffington Post and describes the ten types of corporate innovation programs.

With technology increasing at an exponential rate and new startups with bigtime financial backing popping up left and right, it is difficult for larger, well-established companies to keep pace. As much as technology helps us work faster and smarter, it can also be very disrupting, requiring companies to either change and adapt quickly or be left behind.

To help cope with this ever-changing business environment, companies are looking to invest more in programs that aim to drive innovation and shift traditional business models. Most companies try to install several different types of programs and tactics to accomplish this, and there is not one formula that works for all organizations.

Per Jeremiah Owynag, Forbes contributor and Partner at Altimeter Group, a research based advisory firm, some programs being deployed include:

1. Dedicated Innovation Team. “Corporations often start with staffing an innovation team within the company of full time employees dedicated to developing the strategy, managing, and activating innovation programs.”

2. Innovation Center of Excellence. “Innovation can’t happen in a single group; without broader institutional digestion, new ideas will falter and fall. Some corporations are setting up cross-functional, multi-disciplinary groups to share knowledge throughout the company.”

3. Intrapreneur Program. “Rather than rely solely on external programs, internal employees — dubbed “intrapreneurs” — are given a platform and resources to innovate. These programs invest in employees’ ideas and passions to unlock everything from customer experience improvements to product enhancements.”

Read the other seven programs and the entire article here.

The post Friday Resource: The Ten Types of Corporate Innovation Programs appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

3 Reasons Why You Should Prioritize Innovation

M. A. Rosanoff: “Mr. Edison, please tell me what laboratory rules you want me to observe.”

Thomas Edison: “There ain’t no rules around here. We’re trying to accomplish somep’n!”

Motion pictures, rechargeable batteries, electric lighting. Thomas Edison and his research team managed to make a huge impact in the world. How exactly? By prioritizing innovation.

Luckily, organizations don’t need to create a modern equivalent of something as pivotal as the incandescent lightbulb to make a positive impact. Innovation can take place in any industry and is present any time there’s a new improvement to a product, service, process, or strategy. When innovation occurs, positive impact is inevitable.

Organizations often focus on initiatives and strategies that lead to innovation, such as strengthening leadership skills and promoting diversity of thought. But it’s only when innovation is approached as a goal rather than a perk or side-effect that organizations can tap into their full creative potential and fulfill on ambitious mission statements that make big improvements to “the status quo.” And when it comes to business, who doesn’t want to do it “better?”

Innovation provides an answer to some common and crucial questions:

• How can we keep up with or exceed our competition?

• How can we attract, retain, and engage employees?

• How can we provide the very best products or services to our clients?

• How can we use technology to improve our processes?

• How can we find our way out of a company crisis?

• How can we promote company sustainability and longevity?

The solution is innovation.

So why exactly should organizations prioritize innovation? What are the tangible results?

1. More engagement

Nothing makes talented people run for the hills more quickly than stagnation, innovation’s opposite. Employees want the opportunity to step off the proverbial hamster wheel and dive into their own creative potential. A Krueger & Killham study published by Gallup found that 59% of engaged employees say that their job ‘brings out their most creative ideas.’ Of the surveyed employees who were disengaged, only 3% said the same thing. When leadership communicates innovation as a goal or intention, it gives employees the opportunity to focus their strengths on making improvements and creating better ways of doing things.

2. More growth

An important question for all organizations to ask is, “why do we do what we do?” The answer is often to “improve” a product or service and find “better” ways to serve others. Naturally, improvements will lead to growth—better products and services drive more sales. Innovation has the power to promote growth both in profit and recruiting efforts by meeting employee and client needs as they arise, and it’s important for leaders to recognize when the old way of doing things isn’t keeping up with demand. The ability to adapt to these evolving needs is a key factor in company longevity, and prioritizing innovation is the best way to keep up.

Additionally, recruiting efforts receive a quality boost when innovation is prioritized—talented, forward-thinking people who value innovative ideas will want to be part of the effort.

3. More purpose

Innovation requires creativity, breaking through bias, and bringing “the whole person” to the table. It requires abandoning the status quo and the “just get it done and go home” way of thinking about work. It requires an understanding of the big picture and the why behind what we do. Innovation requires us to consider the footprints we’re making and what we’re leaving in our wake. In a Forbes article titled “Why Purpose-Driven Innovation Trumps All,” contributor George Bradt wrote, “Innovation that sticks is purpose-driven—led by someone on a mission to do good for others…what matters is that the innovator is committed to a cause and is compelled to innovate to overcome a barrier keeping people from realizing their purpose.”

Ask yourself: what is your organization’s purpose? How can new improvements and new ways of operating better fulfill this purpose?

Organizations that fail to prioritize innovation will eventually fall behind organizations that do. If innovation isn’t a priority in your organization, have a fierce conversation to involve leadership in making it a collective goal.

The post 3 Reasons Why You Should Prioritize Innovation appeared first on Fierce, Inc..